The Ride of a Lifetime (Robert Iger, 2019)

Ride of a Lifetime is a book by Disney’s Chairman and CEO — Robert Iger. This is one of the few business books highly recommended by Bill Gates and talks about the ups and downs Iger had at American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and later as the head of Disney for over 15 years. Though the book gets little slow and memoir-like occasionally, we must commend Iger’s candor and writing style.

It’s a good read for anyone keen on understanding how to assimilate large scale acquisitions, manage creative talent, lead amid difficult times, and balance growth with purpose.

Here’re a few incisive quotes from the book.

On leadership

The foundation of risk-taking is courage, and in ever-changing, disrupted businesses, risk-taking is essential, innovation is vital, and true innovation occurs only when people have courage. (pp. xxii)

True authority and true leadership come from knowing who you are and not pretending to be anything else. (pp.36)

As a leader, you should want those around you to be eager to rise up and take on more responsibility, as long as dreaming about the job they want doesn’t distract them from the job they have. (pp.66–67)

Good leadership isn’t about being indispensable; it’s about helping others be prepared to possibly step into your shoes — giving them access to your own decision making, identifying the skills they need to develop and helping them improve. (pp.67)

Especially in difficult moments, the people you lead need to feel confident in your ability to focus on what matters, and not to operate from place of defensiveness and self-preservation. (pp.86–87)

No matter who we become or what we accomplish, we still feel that we’re essentially the kid we were at some simpler time long ago. (pp.224)

Strategy

If leaders don’t articulate their priorities clearly, then the people around them don’t know what their own priorities should be. Time and energy and capital get wasted. People in your organization suffer unnecessary anxiety because they don’t know what they should be focused on. Inefficiency sets in, frustration builds up, morale sinks. (pp.100)

No matter how much data you’ve been given, it’s still, ultimately, a risk, and the decision to take that risk or not comes down to one person’s instinct. (pp.125)

If you are in the business of making something, be in the business of making something great. (pp.232)

Culture

Excellence and fairness don’t have to be mutually exclusive. (pp.21)

You can do a lot for the morale of the people around you just by taking the guesswork out of their day-to-day life. (pp.100–101)

On Innovation

Innovate or die, and there’s no innovation if you operate out of fear of the new or untested. (pp.15)

If you want innovation — and you should, always — you need to give permission to fail. (pp. 45)

People sometime shy away from taking big swings because they assess the odds and build a case against trying something before they even take the first step. (pp.136)

When you innovate, everything needs to change, not just the way you make or deliver a product. Many of the practices and structures within the company need to adapt. (pp.196)

Managing creative talent

Managing creative processes starts with the understanding that it’s not a science — everything is subjective, there is often no right or wrong. The passion it takes to create something is powerful, and most creators are understandably sensitive when their vision or execution is questioned. (pp. 42–43)

A delicate balance is required between management being responsible for the financial performance of any creative work and, in exercising that responsibility, being careful not to encroach on the creative processes in harmful and counterproductive ways. Empathy is a prerequisite to the sound management of creativity, and respect is critical. (pp.43)

On Steve Jobs

Steve was great at weighing all sides of an issue and not allowing negatives to drown out positives, particularly for things he wanted to accomplish. (pp.137)